Grim stories of subsidized housing
CTV interviews several residents of a subsidized NDG building that’s been without heat or hot water since before Christmas, and CBC talks to a resident of another, this one in Verdun, constantly infested by bedbugs.
Ephraim 09:17 on 2019-01-25 Permalink
Well, at least the city finally realized that spraying deadly chemicals repeatedly may not do the trick…. and called in someone with the dogs and heat treatment. (So you get them all, once and for all and in future you can trace the origin tenant.) Now… will the do the important part and provide them with education on how to prevent it in the future?
Kate 10:27 on 2019-01-26 Permalink
As I understand it, Ephraim, it’s not dirt that brings in bedbugs. Anyone can bring them home from a trip or move them in from another location. You need to keep things clean to deter vermin of other kinds, yes, but I don’t think education is the answer here. (Unfortunately, the real answer is DDT, which we don’t use any more. Apparently that was why bedbugs were considered a thing of the past for a couple of decades.)
JP 11:55 on 2019-01-26 Permalink
I agree, though I think education does have some role in minimizing/preventing spread. Even an acquaintance of mine said he once picked up what looked like a perfectly good mattress only to find it had bed bugs. . .I thought it was obvious and common knowledge that this wouldn’t be a good idea, but I guess some people just don’t know.
Kate 12:32 on 2019-01-26 Permalink
True enough. On the one hand we’re trying to teach people not to live wastefully, but on the other, we have to also teach them not to scavenge household goods, even if they look perfectly fine.
Ephraim 13:54 on 2019-01-26 Permalink
@Kate – In the case of bedbugs, it’s not dirt at all.. it’s the bugs themselves that people are bringing in. There are two treatments, cold or heat that work, but remember, you need to reach that temperature throughout the item. Even at -20c, you would need 4 days to ensure they are dead, but at -30c, it might be an hour. Your freezer isn’t even cold enough. For heat, you need at least 50c… that’s not surface temperature, that’s the temperature that everything has to reach, the walls, the studs, the gyproc, everything. A dryer can work, but you need at least about 20 minutes at high. Now, how do you treat a mattress or a sofa? You can’t really put it into a dryer. And furniture?
People need to know to not bring in stray items and what to do with things they do bring in, like clothing. So, if someone brings in some furniture from the outside that they found on the street… they bring the bedbugs in. Why is the landlord responsible? The landlord is actually the victim, left with a bill. It’s nice to find furniture on the street, but if you don’t treat it… you may be the source of the problem. One thing we know for sure… the landlord isn’t bringing them in…. it’s definitely the tenants.
Morgan 15:18 on 2019-01-26 Permalink
People also need to know what to do in order to get rid of bedbugs once they’re in, because treatment alone often won’t work if tenants don’t cooperate. There needs to be no clutter where they can hide to escape the products, and people have to be careful not to take actions that will just spread them out further, such as moving to a different sleeping area. Ask me how I know (**shudder***)